Censored Queer Art Show Reopens To Record-Breaking Crowds In Rio

An exhibition of queer art in Brazil that was shut down after conservative complaints reopened this weekend at Rio di Janeiro’s private School of Visual Arts of Parque Lage to large crowds.

The show was among a string of incidents of censorship condemned last October in an open letter by Brazilian artists and art professionals, who complained of “the rise of hate, intolerance and violence against freedom of expression in the arts and education” in the country.

Gaudencio Fidelis, the show’s curator, called the opening a “celebration of democracy and resistance” in face of the “fast growing fundamentalism and fascism” that he says is threatening to topple the country’s young and “fragile democracy”.